Wo Fat - Noche Del Chupacabra (2011)

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Wo Fat - Noche Del Chupacabra (2011)

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When Wo Fat released "Psychedelonaut" back in 2009, I seriously thought it would blow the doors open for the band and put them on the world stage. That album was just so good that I figured the world would pick up on it and they would be huge as a result. What happened of course it flew under the radar for most people are now the album still remains a undiscovered gem for most of the world's stoner-metal fans. I got the feeling that Brainticket Records didn't give the album the promotion it deserved but I could be wrong on that too so when I heard they were signing to a different label for this, their third album I was pretty excited as I thought they might make a better go at it this time around. I was somewhat surprised however when I read they were signing to Nasoni Records, a label better known for releasing prog-rock kind of bands even though they did do a 10" for UK's psyche-doomsters, Alunah. When this CD arrived in the mail, I was so excited as I have waited for this moment to arrive for well over a year. At last some new Wo Fat but I wasn't expecting an album of this magnitude, this is the best album released so far this year and already a major contender for album of 2011.

Wo Fat for many years now have been one of the very best bands in the Texan stoner-doom metal scene and as anyone who have witnessed the band live in action will tell you, they are an amazing band and NEVER deliver a sub-standard set. Their debut album "The Gathering Dark" was a very good debut, the follow-up Psychedelonaut a masterpiece so where can you go from there ? To my surprise, this album is so incredible it makes me want to re-think how I review and judge recordings. Giving an album a 10-out-of-10 doesn't seem good enough for a recording effort like "Noche del Chupacabra" so I feel just a bit confused about how to describe something this perfect. Now it is pretty much impossible to record the perfect album but Wo Fat have come closer to doing just that than any album I have heard in the last year. You may find my enthusiasm a bit sickening here and I am sure that some folks will read this review, listen to the album and think I am way off on my admiration for Wo Fat's efforts on this recording but so be it, because this album has got me totally floored. "Noche del Chupacabra" comes in a digi-pak with some nice artwork but that is soon forgotten about once you hit play on this 5 track 45 minute monster. The album is very short compared with the 70+ minutes of "Psychedelonaut" but content wise, it is a more complete and concise collection of songs.

Starting with two colossal beasts in "Bayou Juju" and "Descent into the Maelstrom" the first 16 minutes of the album is over-flowing with swirling, psychedelic jam-rock brilliance. Guitarist/vocalist Kent Stump getting the most out of pulsating riffs and furious solo work while bassist Tim Wilson and drummer Michael Walter are tightly locked into a sonic groove that seems loose and incredibly tight at the same time. What Wo Fat achieve here is the ability to make fairly long songs seem short via the use of infectious riffs and free-flowing arrangements that could easily be like a one-take live performance. The shortest track on "Noche del Chupacabra" still clocks in at 6:41 but still has the feel of a 3 minute catchy tune, that track is "Common Ground" and it's the most straight-forward of the 5 tunes but it still gives Stump plenty of room to exercise his guitar flourishes that sound so completely natural. The band are not really doing anything different from what they did on previous albums except expanding on a sound - taking it to new levels of sonic virtuosity and I get the hunch what you are hearing here is the sound of Wo Fat at the absolute peak of their powers. Everything is pushed up a notch higher, whether it be the fuzzy sound of the guitar or the flawless blend of cool songwriting and jammy free-form live atmosphere.

Four tracks in and you have a track like "Phantasmagoria" which highlights how the band is so tightly hooked in with each other, it features one of the jaw-dropping moments of the album where the band strike a groove that on the one hand blows you away and on the other gives you one of spine-chilling rock moments that makes grin from ear to ear. It is the remarkable infectious song-writing coupled with the jamming vibe that gives this its strength. Wo Fat avoid the usual cliches and yet embrace them at the same time by putting their own mark on a well-used jam-rock formula. Of course an album like this needs an epic to round out proceedings and they do it with the 15 minute title track. This monster of a tune starts as a sprawling jam that slowly unwinds and twists and turns in different directions and rather than just repeating what has already been played on the album, they bring in extra percussion and a more tripped out guitar sound giving it a unique place on the album. It all cruises along nicely till an extra dose of fuzz is unleashed about 10 minutes in, this is again one of those rock moments that make you scream FUCK YEAH with approval. You get so lost within the grooves in this song that if never feels like 15 minutes as just passed you by and when it ends, it is almost like a disappointment because you want it to keep on going. Thus ends an incredible recording in stoner-groove-jam rock history. Many people will declare that Wo Fat have arrived with "Noche del Chupacabra" but I thought they already did that 2 years ago with "Psychedelonaut" so I guess you could say, they have arrived and now they have moved into your mind-set and wont leave you alone ever again.

If this album doesn't push the band's status from local Texan stoner metal heroes to international stoner-metal gods I think might as well give up on reviewing all together. I could shoot my mouth off for another paragraph or two on how good this album is but at the end of the day it is up to you to prove me wrong. Now the big question is, can any band do an album better than this in 2011, I seriously doubt it !

10+/10 ~ www.doommantia.com